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United States UNITED STATES 350 Fifth Ave 34 th Floor New York, N.Y. 10118-3299 http://www.hrw.org (212) 290-4700 Vol. 15, No. 1 (G) – January 2003 We don’t want you here, the Navy does’nt want you either. You should have just stayed in your own freakin homo world, with your own kind, at least then youd be somewhat safe, HERE YOUR NOT...........And as long as your in our world you never will be..... Excerpt from a letter left on the windshield of a female sailor's car. [ Spelling and typographical errors from original.] Top left and bottom right: Graffiti found on the walls at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, after a soldier killed another soldier perceived to be gay by beating him with a baseball bat. Bottom left: Written threat left on the windshield of a Marine’s car, 2001. Top right: Written threat left on the vehicle of a sailor, 1996. © 2003 Servicemembers Legal Defense Network UNIFORM DISCRIMINATION: The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy of the U.S. Military 1630 Connecticut Ave, N.W., Suite 500 2nd Floor, 2-12 Pentonville Road 15 Rue Van Campenhout Washington, DC 20009 London N1 9HF, UK 1000 Brussels, Belgium TEL (202) 612-4321 TEL: (44 20) 7713 1995 TEL (32 2) 732-2009 FAX (202) 612-4333 FAX: (44 20) 7713 1800 FAX (32 2) 732-0471 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] January 2003 Vol 15, No. 1 (G) UNITED STATES UNIFORM DISCRIMINATION: The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy of the U.S. Military I. SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................................2 II. RECOMMENDATIONS ..............................................................................................................................5 III. BACKGROUND...........................................................................................................................................6 Gays and the Military Before “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”...............................................................................6 Military Sodomy Laws.........................................................................................................................6 Administrative Restrictions on Gay and Lesbian Servicemembers .............................................................9 Rationales for Anti-Gay Restrictions ...................................................................................................9 IV. “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL”...................................................................................................................11 “Don’t Tell” ...............................................................................................................................................13 “Don’t Ask” ...............................................................................................................................................14 V. DISCHARGES OF GAY AND LESBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS............................................................15 VI. LIFE IN AN ANTI-GAY ENVIRONMENT..............................................................................................21 Threats and Verbal Harassment .................................................................................................................23 Violent Assaults .........................................................................................................................................25 The Murder of Private Barry Winchell ..............................................................................................26 Army Inspector General’s Report on Fort Campbell .................................................................................28 Fort Carson, Colorado........................................................................................................................30 VII. IMPACT ON WOMEN...............................................................................................................................31 VIII. INTRUSIVE INVESTIGATIONS..............................................................................................................34 IX. HUMAN RIGHTS AND U.S. LEGAL STANDARDS..............................................................................36 Human Rights Law ....................................................................................................................................37 Right to Privacy..................................................................................................................................37 Equal Rights and Nondiscrimination .................................................................................................39 U.S. Law ....................................................................................................................................................41 Right to Privacy..................................................................................................................................41 Right to Equal Protection ...................................................................................................................41 First Amendment................................................................................................................................44 X. UNIT COHESION: A RATIONALE IN SEARCH OF EVIDENCE.........................................................45 The U.S. Military and Racial Integration...................................................................................................48 XI. CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................................49 APPENDIX A: NOTE ON U.S. ARMED FORCES RESPONSES TO HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH’S REQUESTS FOR BASIC INFORMATION ...........................................................................................................50 APPENDIX B: ANTI-HARASSMENT ACTION PLAN ......................................................................................51 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................................................................53 Between October 2001 and September 2002, the army discharged ten trained linguists—seven of them proficient in Arabic—because of their sexual orientation. Two of the linguists broke visitation rules, leading to a search of one of their rooms and the discovery of personal letters and photographs that revealed that they were gay. In April 2001, Navy Airman Paul Peverelle told his commanders that he was gay, wanting them to know that a homosexual was doing highly praised work. His commander initially thought that Peverelle was lying about being gay, and the military did not initiate discharge proceedings. Instead, weeks later he was deployed on a six- month tour of duty on the USS Enterprise, with the ship eventually being dispatched to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. On the ship, Peverelle became the focus of threats and harassment. Two members of his squadron called him names such as: “faggot” and “gay bitch,” and threatened to “beat his ass.” Once he returned to Norfolk, Virginia, Peverelle was discharged under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in January 2002. The USS Enterprise was the same ship where the words “high jack this fags” were written on a bomb attached to a fighter jet. In September 2000, a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson called Army Private First Class Ron Chapman a “faggot.” After the drill sergeant’s comment, another soldier told Chapman that he had better watch out. Shortly thereafter, a group of soldiers attacked Chapman. He wrote home the next day: “I have some bad news for you. I got beat up last night. Someone came to my bed—a group of someones—and they were hitting me with blankets and soap. I am aching all over my body ... You guys have to help get me out of here ... This place is dangerous!” I. SUMMARY In his New Year’s Day message for 2003, President George W. Bush proudly described the United States as a “land of justice, liberty, and tolerance.” Yet in the U.S. military, men and women who have served their country with courage, skill, and distinction are discharged every day simply because of their sexual orientation. The U.S. prides itself on its human rights record, yet it permits its military to remain a bastion of officially sanctioned discrimination against homosexuals. The U.S. prohibited gays and lesbians from serving in the military for most of the twentieth century. In 1993, Congress passed new legislation replacing that prohibition with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, a compromise between those, led by President Bill Clinton, who believed the prohibition was discriminatory and wrong, and those, including military leaders, determined to maintain the prohibition. Under the new policy, gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals would be able to serve as long as they kept their sexual orientation a secret and did not engage in homosexual conduct, including off base. In return for agreeing to remain silent and celibate, gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals were to be protected against unwarranted intrusions into their private lives. Private consensual sex by a servicemember with someone of the same sex remained a criminal offence under military law. Although the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was intended to allow gay, lesbian, and bisexual servicemembers to remain in the military, discharges have steadily increased since the policy’s adoption. According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
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